In the autumn of 1781, the American colonial army fought in the Battle of Yorktown, the final and arguably most consequential battle for American independence from British rule. By all accounts, this monumental victory, which forced the surrender of British General Lord Cornwallis and his squadron of nearly 9,000 troops, would not have been possible without crucial insider intelligence from James Armistead, a patriot who worked briefly yet effectively as a double agent for the Continental Army throughout the Revolutionary War.
He was also an enslaved man.
Before actively choosing to serve the budding republic that denied him his freedom, Armistead already had a fairly close-up view of the conflict: His owner, William Armistead managed the military supplies for the state of Virginia after the war began in 1775. In 1780, James and William moved from the Virginia capital of Williamsburg to the new capital, Richmond, and the following summer James got permission to join the armed forces himself.
At the time, enslaved people could fight on either side of the war, with freedom as an incentive for their service. Armistead didn’t take up arms in the war, however. Instead, in 1781, he was stationed under the Marquis de Lafayette, commander of the allied French forces and a key ally of General George Washington, to infiltrate the British army through espionage.
A Revolutionary Double Agent
Getting information on the enemy was critical to Lafayette, who needed to stem the losses his forces were suffering at the hands of Cornwallis’s larger and better supplied army. The French general was also under orders to capture the infamous traitor Benedict Arnold, who was causing chaos after offering his services to the British.
Posing as a runaway enslaved man, Armistead quickly infiltrated British forces via Arnold’s camp. While at first he took on menial tasks, his vast knowledge of the terrain—a trait that wouldn't seem suspicious for a local runaway—was useful to both Arnold and Cornwallis for British intelligence during the war. So they assigned him the task of spying on the colonies.
Armistead’s work as a double agent made traveling between the camps easier, as he didn't stand out as a peculiar presence by either side. It also made collecting information on British forces less dangerous—as long as he wasn’t caught.